When the last dutiful & humble
petition from Congress received no other Answer than declaring us Rebels, and
out of the King’s protection, I from that Moment look’d forward to
a Revolution & Independence, as the only means of Salvation; and will risque
the last Penny of my Fortune, & the last Drop of my Blood upon the Issue.

In 1761, fifteen years before
the United States of America burst onto the world stage with the Declaration
of Independence, the American colonists were loyal British subjects who celebrated
the coronation of their new King, George III. The colonies that stretched from
present-day Maine to Georgia were distinctly English in character although they
had been settled by Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, Swedes, Finns, Africans, French,
Germans, and Swiss, as well as English.

As English men and women, the American colonists were heirs to the thirteenth-century
English document, the Magna Carta, which established the principles that no one
is above the law (not even the King), and that no one can take away certain rights.
So in 1763, when the King began to assert his authority over the colonies to
make them share the cost of the Seven Years' War England had just fought and
won, the English colonists protested by invoking their rights as free men and
loyal subjects. It was only after a decade of repeated efforts on the part of
the colonists to defend their rights that they resorted to armed conflict and,
eventually, to the unthinkable–separation from the motherland.

A Proclamation by the King for Suppressing
Rebellion and Sedition, August 23, 1775 learn
more...

Pulling Down the Statue of George
III at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, oil painting (reproduction) by William
Walcutt, 1857 learn
more...